<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Because We're Friends, Aren't We? by Bulimia_in_the_house</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28403184">Because We're Friends, Aren't We?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bulimia_in_the_house/pseuds/Bulimia_in_the_house'>Bulimia_in_the_house</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>BAMF Adrien Agreste, F/M, Gen, Honestly Lila sucks, How are those two not tags!?, Lila salt, Lila sucks, Manipulative Adrien Agreste, Marinette "Just a Friend" Dupain-Cheng, Oblivious Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Young Adrien Agreste, all children are in some way shape or form, its ok that was way back when he was a young manipulative child</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:27:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,985</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28403184</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bulimia_in_the_house/pseuds/Bulimia_in_the_house</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The girl has the gall to look innocent and taken aback, “Me? Hurting Marinette? But she’s the one who-“<br/><br/>And here comes the deal, “I don’t know how to prove you lied, Lila, because you’re good at it.” Stroke her ego and admit faux defeat. “So you’ll just have to come up with another lie, just as convincing. Only this time, it’s gonna prove Marinette’s innocent.” Make her undo her doing her own way, he thought.<br/><br/>To her credit, Lila knows when and where to push it. “And why would I do that, Adrien?” she ‘kindly’ asked.<br/><br/>“Because we’re friends, aren’t we?”<br/><br/>Or Adrien is fed up with Lila hurting his friend, Marinette, so he makes a deal.<br/></p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>(Small, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir &amp; Alya Césaire, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir &amp; Emilie Agreste, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir &amp; Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir &amp; Nino Lahiffe, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Brains- relationship, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, denial amounts of it because this is Adrien we're talking about)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>201</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Little Kitty is bored.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><br/>
Ever since Adrien was young, he has the uncanny ability to... convince people. Jimmy, please pick up the rock, and Little Jimmy did even if it means reaching down in the ocean depths, his biggest fear. Holly, can you wrap this rubber around your finger, and Hairy Holly followed even when the finger she wrapped it around was turning blue.<br/>
<br/>
In short, 6-year-old Adrien is a master at persuasion.<br/>
<br/>
And he would continue to be if he hadn’t told his mother of the faithful day at the daycare center.<br/>
<br/>
***<br/>
<br/>
Adrien stood up and rushed towards his mom, beaming brightly as he did so. His beautiful mother bent down with open arms and crushed him in one of her bear hugs as soon as he wrapped his little arms around her.<br/>
<br/>
“Hello kitten, how was your day? Made any new friends?” she asked, linking their hands together and swinging it back and forth.<br/>
<br/>
“Mummy, it was a really weird day..”<br/>
<br/>
***<br/>
<br/>
“What’cha got there, ‘dren?” a tall boy with dark curls asked.<br/>
<br/>
“It’s Adrien.”<br/>
<br/>
“....”<br/>
<br/>
Adrien surpressed the urge to roll his eyes, as mummy said: it is rude. “I’m washing my hands.”<br/>
<br/>
“Ooh, yes. But how did you make those white clouds appear?” a short blonde boy piped up.<br/>
<br/>
Adrien stared blankly in front of them, the gears in his head starting to form an idea.<br/>
<br/>
Adrien crinkled his eyes and smiled like he would in front of mummy “It’s really easy, you just take a lot of soap, and rub it AALLLLL around your hands. The more soap the better.”<br/>
<br/>
The two boys are excited, and both proceeded to push the soap dispenser as many times as they desired and rubbed their palms in determination.<br/>
<br/>
But Adrien didn’t stop there.<br/>
<br/>
“I heard, that you could make real clouds if you make a lot of it, and then you could make a wish!” he hopped up and down for effect.<br/>
<br/>
The two boys lightened up “Really?!”<br/>
<br/>
Adrien nodded vigorously “Yeah! The more, the merrier!!”<br/>
<br/>
They both gasped and ran to tell the rest of their friends, and in no time 5 boys lined up, eager to make a wish of their own. They pumped the dispenser until soap disappeared, the rubbed their skin until it’s red and wrinkled from the moisture, but at least the boys could visibly see the fruits of their labor.<br/>
<br/>
“Look! LOOK!! THE CLOUDS ARE GETTING BIGGER!!”<br/>
<br/>
“ZACH THAT’S IT! KEEP IT UPP!!”<br/>
<br/>
“But hands are achy and huuurt!”<br/>
<br/>
“It’s for the wish, Zach! Do it for the wish!!”<br/>
<br/>
“WHAT’S GOING ON IN HERE?!” a voice boomed.<br/>
<br/>
The children turned in fear, caught red-handed (heh!) by their teacher.<br/>
<br/>
Ms. Wiggins<br/>
<br/>
“Children, while I normally approve of hygiene, this is a bit too much.” She looked at their red skin in worry.<br/>
<br/>
“But Ms. Wiggins, we’re making clouds, see?”<br/>
<br/>
“And that is very nice. But still, we can’t use up soap like this. Look at your hands!”<br/>
<br/>
Underneath the majestic ‘clouds’ these children have created are their red, wrinkly hands, skin peeled at the sides from scrubbing.<br/>
<br/>
“But, But-“<br/>
<br/>
“No, buts. Now tell me who gave you this.... wondrous idea.” Ms. Wiggins said, approaching them.<br/>
<br/>
The five children looked at the tall, curly haired boy and his short, blonde friend. Both started to tear up from all the negative attention.<br/>
<br/>
“Ms. Wiggins, we didn’t mean to!” the blond boy wailed.<br/>
<br/>
“Yeah! Dren said it would work!!” the tall one declared, his scarf swishing along with him.<br/>
<br/>
“Dren... Adrien? Unlike all of you, Adrien is punctual and managed to show up in time for nap time!” Ms. Wiggins said, confused.<br/>
<br/>
“But Ms. Wiggins it’s true!!”<br/>
<br/>
“Now, now. All of you involved will be in a time out corner for five minutes-“<br/>
<br/>
“NOT THE TIME OUT CORNER!!” the children cried.<br/>
<br/>
“-yes, the time out corner. And William, John.” She looked at the two boys. “You’re coming with me and we’ll talk to Adrien.”<br/>
<br/>
***<br/>
<br/>
“Adrien honey.” Ms. Wiggins entered the room.<br/>
<br/>
Adrien ceased to pretend sleeping, and pretended to yawn and rub his eyes sleepily instead.<br/>
<br/>
“Hello Ms. Wiggins.”<br/>
<br/>
The teacher smiled, “Hello Adrien. Now, I’m sorry for disturbing your nap time but these two boys...” she gestured over to William and John, who scowled. “... told me that you gave them the cloud soap idea. Now, it’s alright, nothing’s wrong with it. But their hands are scrubbed raw, and I fear that no child should have so much contact with soap. Are you still with me?”<br/>
<br/>
Adrien looked at the boys’ hands with interest “Yes”.<br/>
<br/>
“What I’m trying to say, is why did you tell them to do that?” Ms. Wiggins finished.<br/>
<br/>
Adrien could recognise trouble when it came. And he knows he looks above average than most kids, mummy says so. While he’s not sure if the act would fool his teacher like it did with his maids and other children, he’s sure it won’t hurt to try.<br/>

<br/>“I-“ he sniffled “- I never told them to do such thing-“.<br/>
<br/>“LIAR!” John, the short blonde, shouted. “You knew what you did! Tell Ms. Wiggins!”<br/>

<br/>“I said I never told you to do it, I only said you could do it if you wanted to, and I showed you how! Because it seemed cool!!” his voice wobbled, and he made his lips tremble just to be sure that he looked on the verge of crying.<br/>
<br/>
“I- I just wanted to make friends...”<br/>
<br/>
It seemed to work, as Ms. Wiggins reached to hug Adrien and soothe him. He looked at the boys who looked guilty and added those reactions as a bonus.<br/>
<br/>
“Adrien, you know you’re always welcome here. Always! Remember that.” She assured him as Adrien nodded solemnly and looked at the boys warily.<br/>
<br/>
Ms. Wiggins caught on and gave the two a meaningful look.<br/>
<br/>
The two coughed. “We- uh- we’re sorry for jumping to conclusions, ‘dren-“<br/>
<br/>
“Adrien”<br/>
<br/>
“- Adr’en” the tall curly haired boy, William, said.<br/>
<br/>
“And you can be friends with us, it’s alright.” John followed, fidgeting with his cotton jumpers.<br/>
<br/>
Adrien smiled, eyes shining “I know it’s alright.”<br/>
<br/>
As the situation settled, Adrien went back to pretend napping, mentally adding the image of the boys’ red, scrubbed hands, telling himself to never try that, cringing as he imagined it so over his own palms.<br/>
<br/>
***<br/>
<br/>
Adrien finished recounting the tale to his mother, who was silent. He looked up to her, seeing her blank face meant that she’s thinking like him too.<br/>
<br/>
“Adrien, what did you exactly think about when you told them about the soaps and the clouds?”<br/>
<br/>
He cocked his head to the side. “Well, I always wanted to know what happens if you scrub your hands with so much soap for a long time. I don’t know what the consequences could be if I do that, and I thought, 'this is my chance, what if they were bad results. I don’t want bad results.' So I gave it to them instead.”<br/>
<br/>
His mummy looked at him strangely. She stopped, and crouched down to his height. “Adrien, please listen to mummy carefully...”<br/>
<br/>
He nodded.<br/>
<br/>
“You cannot, ever, use others for your own experiments again. Or ever. Do you understand?”<br/>
<br/>
“But mummy, what if I’m curious-?”<br/>
<br/>
“Even so, you cannot. It’s bad, okay? And you’re not bad, you’re good, like the heroes in your comics.”<br/>
<br/>
Adrien looked at his mother, and smiled.<br/>
<br/>
“Okay mummy, I promise.”<br/>
<br/>
And as promised, Adrien never did anything horrible or suggest anything bad the next day, or even days after that. Days turned to months, and months turned to years, and even after his mother’s disappearance, he still kept the promise that he made years ago.<br/>
<br/>
And he was about to break that promise, when he found out that Lila had somehow managed to expel his friend, Marinette.<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Plan</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for those who commented~🤗 Yes, young adrien didn't really know much, that's why his mother set the record straight. A good thing too because he won't be Chat Noir if he kept that up. </p>
<p>Also, I love the pair Adrien×Brains, its a rare pair HAHAHAH</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><br/>Now, him and Marinette aren’t as close as him or Nino, or her and Alya. She seems to be avoiding him at all costs. God knows what he did for her to be scared of him. (He swears that he can’t find a reason on to why.)<br/><br/>But this isn’t about that.<br/><br/>When an Agreste finds a person they deeply associate themselves with, whether it be friends, bestfriends, partners or lovers, they are committed and loyal. And they work to keep them well just as deeply.<br/><br/>Imagine his surprise when he found out Mari was expelled for assaulting Lila.<br/><br/>“Assaulting Lila? That’s new.” He wondered. Of course, he knows that’s not true right off the bat. But he needs closure.<br/><br/>“Oh you should have seen it, Adrikins. Lila said that not only did Mari-trash verbally insult her, but she pushed her downstairs too!” she smirked.<br/><br/>Adrien faced Chloe, eyebrows raising, “You don’t believe Marinette Dupain-Cheng could do all of that, right?”<br/><br/>Chloe looked at him incredulously, “Duh! Mari-trash maybe a loser but she has morals. She wouldn’t push anyone, not even me, unless her morals were compromised. Which is utterly ridiculous, by the way...”<br/><br/>Adrien let Chloe ramble on as he looked at Lila’s direction with an emotionless stare. The brunette is spinning another one of her tall tales to Ivan, Juleka and Rose. Right when she was in the middle of it, she looked at him, smiled ‘sweetly’ and waved courtly.<br/><br/>Adrien politely smiled and turned back to Chloe, excusing himself as he walked away. He watched her in the corner of his eye do the same thing, prompting the blonde model to speed up and presumably duck inside one of the classrooms.<br/><br/>When Lila, who tailed Adrien, saw him enter an empty classroom, she smirked and followed suit. This is easy, she would think. Too easy. Inside the classroom, the air conditioner was turned on, but there are no signs of the blonde inside the classroom. Puzzled, she circled the room in curiosity, figuring out how exactly he evaded her.  She was on the other side of the room near the windows when the door closed shut.<br/><br/>Panicking, she turned and ran towards the door, trying to open it to no avail. It just wouldn’t budge. She really can’t be caught loitering in the rooms. And just when she entertained the thought of jumping out of the window (the chaos that came with the decision might just be worth it too), the door opened, revealing Sabrina on the other side.<br/><br/>Lila gave her one of her brightest smiles and cooed “Sabrina, hey. Ummm... you wouldn’t mind if you kept this between us, right?” she then winked dramatically.<br/><br/>As expected, Sabrina laughed at the ridiculousness of her action. “Nah, it’s alright. Chloe told me to give you this.”<br/><br/>The girl handed her a slip of paper. Lila grabbed and opened the little thing. On the surface are the words: ‘No cuts, no buts, no coconuts’ typewritten on the paper.<br/><br/>Lila’s smile just turned faker. “Erm.. are you sure it’s Chloe and not Adrien?”<br/><br/>“I would recognize them if so. Besides, the two are different enough that I won’t be mistaken.” Sabrina said.<br/><br/>Lila simply thanked the girl with a smile, and as she skipped away, Lila dropped it immediately, rubbing her cheeks from smiling widely for too long. She furrowed her eyebrows and looked back down at the offending slip of paper, the phrase taunting her as she read it all over again.<br/><br/>***<br/><br/>Adrien tried containing his laughter, he really did. But he slipped a few chuckles here and there upon seeing Lila’s confusion at the little note. The note didn’t really mean anything, it’s a little bit of a joke after all. But seeing the brunette overanalyse the heck out of it just made it even more funnier. Alya and Nino thought he’s chuckling at them. Oh well, what they don’t know won’t kill them.<br/><br/>Anyway, he’s fed up with Lila, and he should have never told Marinette to take the high road. He felt like such a hypocrite, advising his friend to take the high road when he’s here planning to do the exact opposite.<br/><br/>So he created a plan.<br/><br/>A long time ago, and just in case when Lila proved to be a little annoying, he planted little seeds of doubt in their classmate’s heads. Nothing too major, just little complaints about Lila’s nails digging in too sharp, nuzzling her disgusting caked face on his clothes, her broken promises to his father.<br/><br/>Minor offences, really.<br/><br/>But he’s glad he had a little insurance. All he has to do is to turn it up a notch, possibly recruiting Alya and Nino in it as well. By then, anything that Adrien, or anyone really, will suggest when it all comes together will be accepted without questions or faced without backlash.<br/><br/>He knows that Lila works for his father. He knows his father too well, recruiting Lila to be his eyes at school is a very Gabriel Agreste thing to do. So he can’t put the Agreste Brand under suspicion, nor can he tell father anything about the plan. What he can do, is pull one of his acquaintances he made during the photoshoot to be HIS eyes when it comes to following Lila and digging up dirt on her. His mother always said that a good extra pair of eyes can come a long way.<br/><br/>Maybe he can pull out his ‘connections’ card too. He’s rich, and he’s a model. And by that knowledge, he certainly knew a few or so people in Italy that could look for a Lila Rossi in the school records. Nothing too specific, just schools, places she frequents in, and people she interacted with, he doesn’t want father to know after all. Put his good looks to use and tell them that its a surprise for a friend. People seem exasperated whenever he mentions that when doing anything about and for Marinette. He still doesn’t know what that was about, but it does work in his favor this time.<br/><br/>Based on Lila’s behaviour, this also isn’t her first rodeo. So, she must have tried to climb up the social ladder in the past. He’ll have to work out with a few connections that won’t be tied to the Agreste Brand. And if worse comes to worse, he’ll hire people that could dig Lila Rossi’s public records of violation, preferably the ones that forced her to move schools in the first place.<br/><br/>For the life of him, he can’t lie as well as he can act. Acting comes naturally for him, modelling tends to bring that out of you, his mother once said. For that, he would have to act as if the deal would benefit her the most. After all, if he’ll have to make a deal with the devil, it should be a deal that could satisfy both parties, but secretly caters to his side even more.<br/><br/>He also notes that his father is still quite overprotective of him, so if news of his little spy harassing his son managed to ‘come and land upon his lap’, that would certainly speed things up. Physical traces of harassment can’t be reasoned out by a lie. And they’re not hard to fake if it’s practically happening to him already. (*ahemahemChloeahem*)<br/><br/>After that, the record keeping and counting shall continue as follows, including the accounts from other victims. Adrien is so excited! It’s been a long time since he ‘persuaded’ someone but he’s sure that his skills are not bad, if a little rusty! It would be such a treat in his little plan!<br/><br/>RIIIING!!!<br/><br/>“Dude, did you even listen to a thing I said?” Nino asked, him and Alya are looking at him worriedly.<br/><br/>Realizing that he zoned out, he nervously chuckled and tried to pick at his memories that weren’t as zoned out to form an answer. “Yeah, yeah! Of course! Cheering up Marinette and all~”<br/><br/>Nino smiled mischievously “You better know what you’ll bring, bro. We’ll come tomorrow morning.”<br/><br/>“Yes, yes of course!” he tried to hide his shock as he waved them goodbye. Alya chortled, she must have known he was lost. How she did that, he does not know.<br/><br/>“Could we stop by somewhere? I needed to talk to someone... kinda.” He sheepishly smiled. Gorilla simply harrumphed, and made a detour towards Canal Saint-Martin. He texted Lila the directions too, and began to flesh out his plan afterwards.<br/><br/>***<br/><br/>“Would you mind leaving us alone for a second?” he requested. Vincent simply agreed and went off with the make up artist, leaving the two teenagers alone.<br/><br/>Adrien sat next to Lila, determined not to face Lila, and wanting her to know he’s serious about this. “I warned you once already, Lila, but you didn’t listen. You hurt my friend, Marinette, and that’s not ok.”<br/><br/>The girl has the gall to look innocent and taken aback, “Me? Hurting Marinette? But she’s the one who-“<br/><br/>And here comes the deal, “I don’t know how to prove you lied, Lila, because you’re good at it.” Stroke her ego and admit faux defeat. “So you’ll just have to come up with another lie, just as convincing. Only this time, it’s gonna prove Marinette’s innocent.” Make her undo her work her own way, he thought.<br/><br/>To her credit, Lila knows when and where to push it. “And why would I do that, Adrien?” she ‘kindly’ asked.<br/><br/>“Because we’re friends, aren’t we?”<br/><br/>He saw her nod discreetly at someone he can’t see for a second. And Adrien’s willing to bet that it’s Nathalie.<br/><br/>Alas, for now, it’s a waiting game. As Chat Noir, he’s the impatient one, the one that heads into the battle unprepared. Sure, Ladybug may be the patient, calculating one out of the duo, but Adrien has been playing the waiting game his entire life. Once for his mother’s disappearance, another for his father’s approval, and one for Ladybug’s love. He could wait one more time in the name of Marinette’s justice.<br/><br/>He’s just sorry that he has to break his mother’s promise all those years ago.<br/></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Nino: Welcome baaack dudette~!<br/><br/>Marinette: You guys, you are the best friends I could ask for.<br/><br/>Alya: And since your absence, I have taken the liberty to give you the notes you missed, Nino promised he won’t be an annoying little pelican... (*Nino glares*) Oh, and some calming music.<br/><br/>Nino: Then, we have Adrien-<br/><br/>Adrien: Uh, Uhm....<br/><br/>Marinette: Adrien- pale- ok- I mean- Adrien, you look ok are you pale- I MEAN!<br/><br/>Adrien: MARINETTE I’MSSOSORRYIDIDN’TGETYOUANYTHINGIWASJUSTSOBUSYAND-<br/><br/>Nino: You zoned out when I told you didn’t you? *sigh*<br/><br/>Alya: Honey, we told you to just bring yourself. Marinette looo-(*Marinette’s glare) -ooks busy enough anyways.<br/><br/>Adrien: ..... so is it too late to give you the deed to a house in Michigan?<br/><br/>Marinette’s eyes bugged out (heh!) And fainted. The end.<br/></p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>William- for William Sherlock Scott Holmes<br/>John- for John Hamish Watson</p><p>Enjoy~!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>